ONLY IN AMNEWYORK
Emil Forsberg has been in some similar situations like the one he and his New York Red Bulls are currently facing this week when they meet the reigning MLS champion Columbus Crew in their best-of-three first-round playoff series, which begins on Tuesday in Ohio.
Granted, Forsberg’s past experiences have come on much larger stages, but the first thing that popped into his mind was when he helped lead his Swedish national team to a two-legged, 1-0 upset over powerhouse Italy to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
“No one thought we were going to win and we beat them,” Forsberg told amNewYork. “What I felt at that time was everything is about how you mentally work. If you’re ready to do whatever it takes to win, you’re going to achieve it.
“That’s the kind of mentality we have to bring in now as well.”
Forsberg and his Red Bulls are underdogs against Columbus after sputtering and wheezing over the finish line of the regular season to clinch a 15th successive postseason berth. The extension of such a streak provides little consolation, especially because New York won just three of its last 15 matches to sink from fourth in the Eastern Conference to seventh.
The downturn in play directly coincided with Forsberg’s injury suffered in early June with the Swedish national team. The lower leg issue held him out for nearly four months, halting his first season in New York after making the jump from Red Bull Leipzig in Germany, and the progress made from a blistering start to the 2024 campaign in which the Red Bulls won eight and drew five from their first 16 games.
“It’s been a tough year with the injury. I didn’t count on it,” Forsberg said. “It was a complicated injury with the Achilles. You got to be careful, and it was hard because I think we started very, very good. We were up there. We were top four, top three, and then I got injured and I think we still played very well, we just couldn’t get the goals… the way we played, I think we deserved more… It’s been a roller-coaster of a year. We’ve been good, we’ve been bad, and we’ve been good. But we couldn’t find that consistency.”
The Red Bulls are far more consistent when they have a healthy Forsberg. Not only is he an elite talent who has succeeded at nearly every level he has played at, from the top flight in Germany to the World Cup, but he has also provided invaluable, experienced leadership as New York’s captain.
But there have been different challenges that have come with wearing the captain’s arm band. The Red Bulls are one of the youngest sides in MLS and developing talent still needs to have a nurturing aspect to it.
“It’s been more of being a leader now on and off the pitch,” Forsberg said. “I’ve tried to push the guys to be better, to do more, to be more confident in themselves in the way they play, the way they want to develop. In that way, it’s been very fun because I’ve seen a lot of guys listening to that and doing a lot better. But everyone has to take their own responsibility, like what I can do, what everybody can do is just push themselves. I’m demanding a lot from myself and from everybody else, and I think that was the first thing I tried to bring with me when I came from Leipzig.”
One of the most important messages he has tried to push on his younger teammates is the consistency of a positive mindset, which is something that appeared to be lacking before the new regime of Forsberg and head coach Sandro Schwarz arrived last winter.
“I had this feeling that when I came here, it was a little bit ‘ugh’ here [he made a groaning, deflating sound],” Forsberg began. “I want to try to get us out of that feeling and start thinking, ‘F—k, we’re a good team. We can beat everybody. We are so good.'”
The components are certainly there to be a top team in MLS. A healthy Forsberg and his partnership with forward Lewis Morgan has been one of the more bountiful units in the league. New York’s defense is also capable of limiting even the most lethal of attacks.
Forsberg knows that and it seems that everyone around him is starting to believe that, too.
“OK, we’re playing Columbus. It’s a good team, but f—k it, we can win. Why can’t we?” he began. “We have a fantastic team, fantastic coaches. We just have to believe. There is nothing before or after. It’s just these three games where you gotta be on 100%. There’s nothing else. Nothing else in the world matters at this moment when you go into that pitch.
